Bunscoil McAuley Rice Curious Minds

                                                          Does anyone have any questions about the Tallest Tower Challenge? Yes, when can we eat the marshmallows?

We had great fun building the most incredible towers today for Engineer's Week. We used lego blocks, jenga blocks, toothpicks, marshmallows and much much more!

It's amazing how the children's concentration levels soared when bribed with a marshmallow!

Check out some brilliant pictures captured by teachers below.

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                                                                                           Engineer's Week Off to a Flying Start!!

There was huge excitement in our school this morning with the beginning of Engineer's Week. The pupils were challenged to create paper planes and see whose could fly the furthest. The kids were shocked to hear that it took thousands of years to achieve flight although our 3rd class reckon if Mr. Ryan was here for another thousand years, he still wouldn't be able to make his paper plane fly!!

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      Should we add wellies and overalls to our school uniform next year?

We have had so many animals and birds under our care in our school this year that Mr. Moloney is wondering if the school uniform needs some adjusting!! Earlier on in the year, our students were delighted to be involved in the Nore Valley Incubator Project. The children were given the very important job of looking after some eggs and making sure they were at a suitable temperature each day. There was huge excitement in the school when the eggs finally hatched and everyone was delighted to meet our furry little friends. The wonderful experience inspired the children to create their very own bird feeders and bird feed to see what other types of birds live in our area. Check out the pictures below:

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A New Zoo in Callan?

6th Class were working on Area and Perimeter in Maths this week. They were given the area and perimeter of specific zoo enclosures, entrances, food courts etc. and had to use this information to work out the lengths and widths of each section. They children were then challenged to create their own zoo designs based on these measurements. They were wondering if they could include an enclosure for teachers!!

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Ms. Meade has hired some new gardeners!!

Ms. Meade has been looking to renovate her garden recently but has been struggling to find people to carry out the work for her. Little did she know, the perfect crew of workers were sitting in front of her everyday. Check out the brilliant work 1st class are doing on the school flower beds. 

They will be starting in Ms. Meade's house next week. She reckons all it will cost is a few homework passes!!

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Terrific Towers!!

Ms. O'Shea was lucky enough to have visited the Burj Khalifa recently. However, she said it was half as impressive as the towers built in Senior Infants. The kids can't understand why they didn't just use Lego or Jenga blocks for the Burj, it would have been much cheaper!

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Where are we going on our school tour?

Even Mr. Fogarty wouldn't try this!! Mr. Kelly hates nothing more than trying to organise a school tour. He thinks it's way too much work. So much so that he has decided to let the children plan their own trip up to Dublin Zoo! I wonder will they stop in McDonald's on the way home?

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The Bunscoil McAuley Rice Winter Olympics

6th class children have recently being exploring Length in maths. We decided to run our very own Olympic Games so our pupils could see what it is like to run in a 100m race, jump as high as they can in the high jump and much much more! 

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Why did the chicken cross the maze?     

Students have been loving our home activities this year. Recently, we have been sending home activities, challenges and investigations for children to work on outside of school hours. In our latest challenge, pupils have been attempting to create their own mazes and the  responses have been a-maze-ing!! Keep an eye out on Aladdin for our new challenge this week.

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 Play-Doh Fun

Infants had great fun today mixing materials to make their own Play-Doh. You should try it at home, it wasn't messy at all!!

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Room to Improve!

Dermot Bannon watch out!! 6th Class have been very busy in our computer room designing their dream rooms using TinkerCad. There have been some very interesting design ideas such as 60" TVs, astro turf pitches and fish tanks to name just a few. Maybe Dermot Bannon is not that expensive!!

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 Internet Safety

Our 2nd-6th class pupils participated in very valuable Internet Safety seminars this week where they learned all about their digital footprints along with many key skills required for the safe navigation of the internet and a wide array of popular apps. 

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 I think that's enough screen time for today!!

Junior and Senior Infants have been having great fun with IPads lately. They have been learning all about coding. Looks like we could have a few computer programmers in the future!

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Take off your jacket!!

Mr. Kelly is sick of telling his class to take off their hats and jackets in class. 5th class tracked their classroom temperature for a few weeks and came to the conclusion that Mr. Kelly is actually right for once!

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I think we need more eggs!!

5th class children had great fun designing and making parachutes this week. The pupils had to create a parachute design that would protect an egg from breaking during a 5-metre drop. Ms. Mulrooney refused to admit how many eggs actually survived the drop!

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 Exploring the Structure of the Earth

6th Class using playdough to explore the structure of the earth. This was a great activity to understand the different layers of the earth. We great fun slicing it open to see what was inside.

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                             Is that a goat on our GAA pitch?

                 

There was a huge amount of excitement today as our GAA pitch was turned into a mini farm! Many thaks to Tom from Agriaware who brought his mobile farm to our school. The children loved meeting and learning about a variety of farm animals!

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What do you mean we can't play Roblox???

Our 6th class children found out today that IPads can be used for things other than online games! We explored the skeleton and the different bones that make up our body!

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Genius Hour - A Teacher's Best Friend!

Mr. Fogarty has been able to sit back, relax and put the feet up this week as his students become teachers for the week. Some more brilliant Genius Hour presentations from 6th class!

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                                                              World Diabetes Day                                                              

 A big thanks to Fionnn who gave an excellent presentation to 5th & 6th classes to mark World Diabetes Day.

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Pumpkin Brains

    Junior Infants really got into the Halloween spirit as they learned how to carve pumpkins and make some brains using some very special ingredients! We had some very gooey and messy hands but we had great fun!!

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Genius Hour!

 6th class have been very busy this year taking part in Genius Hour. This is a project where the pupils were given the opportunity to explore their own passions and interests. The children came up with their own research questions, carried out investigations and research before presenting their findings to their classmates. The children showed off their incredible knowledge and creativity in a huge variety of topics. Check out some of our finished products below!

 

 

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Rainbow Rice

Junior Infants were very busy making rainbow ice and learning their first sound!

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